The Investigators, Inc. The Widow’s Case. Chapter 3. Bullets and Baseball.

Jennifer’s call to me came in loud and clear and since Celestine was standing next to me, I pushed her to the ground and with me landing on top of her! I figured there must have been a shooter nearby and Celestine and I were likely the targets since she is playing the part of my wife on this case. As soon as we hit the ground, four bullets struck, two in the ground and two on my back. The two hitting the ground narrowly missed Celestine. When the bullets struck everyone hit the ground.

Everyone except Sky, Friskie and Blake Swann. Friskie, who was standing next to Sky, pointed to a tall pine tree and Sky tossed a lightning ball causing a man to yell and fall to the ground. I got up and stared at Swann. “And why didn’t you fall to the ground Mr. Swann?” I asked, “It’s quite a normal reaction when someone is shooting at you. Unless, of course, you know the person is not shooting at you.” “I have had enough of your accusations McCann!” he yelled, “Arrest that man!” “Seems to me, officer,” I said, “that you should be going to check on that man who shot at us.”

“Oh, yeah, I better do that,” he said, “uh, but there might be other shooters in the area so I better call for backup first.” While he was doing that I started to walk over to the man. “Get off my property McCann, now you really are trespassing!” he yelled, as he came running after me. I just ignored him this time until I came to the shooter, until we came to the shooter actually, since Sky, Friskie and Misty came along. Celestine went inside, Sky had told her it would be safer for her that way.

Swann was still yelling at us when we came to the body which, unfortunately, had no identification on him. I kind of figured that would be the case, guy’s like this don’t generally carry ID. “You can’t dig through his pockets!” yelled Swann, “Only the police are allowed to do that!” I then stood up and went right up to Swann. “This man shot at my wife and I,” I yelled back, “I will do whatever I want! Strangely enough, he is on your property when he shot at us!” Misty was continuing to look through the man’s pockets while I yelled at Swann.

I thought perhaps since he likes to yell all the time that he might be hard of hearing, which is why I yelled too. Misty stood up as the police officer finally made his way over to us. “Arrest them! Arrest them!” yelled Swann extra loud this time, “They are trespassing! Arrest them!” “Um, Mr. McCann, perhaps it would be better for you to leave,” said the officer, “we will check on this man and give you an update.” I thanked him and we then went back to Elenore’s house.

“Rats,” I said, “I wanted to get the serial number off that gun, he likely got it illegally, but it’s possible he bought it legally too.” Misty smiled. “I got the number for you Steve,” she said triumphantly and quickly wrote it down. “I also finished going through all of his pockets,” she said, “and found these items.” She gave me a piece of paper with a phone number and 25K written on it. Odd for a hitman to carry such information, but maybe he is new at this. I will check on that phone number later.

She also spotted a handgun in one pocket, but she let Sky take it so Misty’s fingerprints wouldn’t get on it. Our ghosts don’t leave fingerprints on things they touch, so they are perfect for certain activities. There was also another piece of paper with a letter and number on it, but it didn’t make much sense, however, I sent that to Mac, he might have an idea. He got back to me right away with a simple answer, the letter was the first letter of the hotel name, the number was his room. Why didn’t I think of that?

Guess that’s why I have such a large team. I should have brought some of the guys along on this one. I also got in touch with Jennifer to let her know what was going on and she was not happy with the shooting part and told me to be more careful, and to make sure I look after Celestine! She also told me that the guys are on the way. Since I didn’t take any she decided to send them all. Most will stay in the city, but 5 of them will come out here to help us.

“I’m glad you thought of that,” I told her, “I love you.” “Uh huh, just be careful,” she said, “if you get yourself killed I won’t talk to you again. And…I love you too.” Poor Elenore was quite scared now after the shooting and she was talking about selling and getting away from that mad man next door. Just then the surveyors showed up, three of them, so I watched out the window. Two of them began to dig holes in the yard, so Sky, Misty, Tracy and myself went out to talk with them.

As we got to them, one of the men picked up his shovel which almost looked like he was preparing for a fight, but Misty and Tracy had their guns out in characteristic time of one second. The men both dropped their shovels saying don’t shoot, they didn’t mean anything, they were just lifting their shovels. I’m not sure I will believe that one, but I will let it go for now. The “surveyor”, who had no ID to prove he was a qualified surveyor, showed me a town planning map which showed the property line should be 4 feet closer to Elenore’s house. I took a picture of it and sent it off to Melody to check out its authenticity.

I then told the surveyor that if it was true, then Elenore’s property would go 4 feet past the fence that Mr. Swann put up on the other side of Elenore’s property since the lots are all marked out at 40 feet wide. We measured it together and he agreed with me, so he phoned Swann who then came running over, screaming at us once again. I guess he doesn’t know how to talk normally. The surveyor explained to Mr. Swann about the problem and that’s when he really exploded and hit the surveyor.

The police officer then held him back from doing anything more. The surveyor then hit Swann and his two helpers held him back. I then told them all to get off Elenore’s property or I would have them arrested. Just then more police arrived who had been checking things around the dead shooter. Everyone then left quickly, so we started back to the house. Before we got there a guy on a motorcycle stopped and said “Hey!” He then tossed a baseball, nicely, and Misty caught it easily with one hand.

The guy then rode away. Sky told Misty to toss it to her right away, which she did. Sky was concerned it might have been a bomb. However, it was just a baseball, nothing special, but it was kind of odd. The man had the name of a gang on his jacket, one that I recognized, but why the baseball?

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.